From American Public Media, an interview by Dick Gordon for North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC:

Allison Wright runs her own framing business. She also has Down syndrome. New government programs are now encouraging people with disabilities to work while they continue to receive federal support. In the past, disabled people who earned income were penalized by having their benefits withheld.

Allison and and her dad, Edward, started a micro-business inside Edward’s framing company. They got a micro-loan from the government, which Allison used to buy a specialized carving tool. Her next step was to hire her first employee, a business manager. Their store is in Hillsborough, NC

… Whenever we talk about employment statistics, we generally don’t talk about people with developmental disabilities. And with good reason. There’s not much to boast about. Seventy four percent of people with these kinds of disabilities don’t work. The explanation that was given was pretty simple and pretty cold: These people don’t fit in the workplace. What’s changing, though, is that the workplace is being fitted for them.

Audio is available for download. Extensive interviews of Alison and Edward.

Many thanks to Kathy Hernandez for sending the story!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 7:37 am and is filed under Down syndrome, disabilities, employment, families, funding, intellectual/developmental disabilities, parents, personal stories, success stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post